History and mission

The Ackerley Partner School Network was created in 2004 with a gift from the Ginger and Barry Ackerley Foundation to support the University of Washington College of Education in building and sustaining partnerships between “high-needs schools” and its elementary and secondary teacher education programs.

Since its founding, the Ackerley network has engaged school partners—including principals and teachers—in efforts to support and improve the UW’s teacher education programs while also responding to needs identified by partner schools.

Since 2010, the College’s teacher education programming has developed significantly, including:

concerted efforts to increase collaboration between our general education and special education teacher education programs, and

The Ackerley network has grown from serving 130 teacher candidates in 30 Seattle-area schools at its creation to serving more than 250 teacher candidates placed in over 100 schools across Washington state today.